During the next year we intend to direct our efforts toward extending our recent findings of differences in steroid hormone metabolism existing between normal men and women and in subjects predisposed to coronary atherosclerosis. Our hypothesis is that the differences in steroid hormone synthesis, concentration, and/or metabolism, which serve to protect the pre-menopausal white female against coronary heart disease, are not present in coronary artery disease-prone men. We intend to measure all the known steroid hormones, many of the precursors and transformation products as well as investigate their dynamic behavior in the circulation. These data can only be interpreted with proper selection and categorization of the patient groups. This project involves the collaboration of internists, cardiologists, biochemists, and biostatisticians.